Christopher D. Schmitz's Blog, page 41

Review: My Golden Bridge Adventure

[image error]So the noir cover with red lettering made me think of the MCU’s Black Widow right away (who is something of a sexualized character) and the third word of the official description is “school girl”… I expressed concerns to the UK author Maisie Brown that My Golden Bridge Adventure’s title uses a slur for a three person sex act and I wondered what kind of book I was being asked to review. She assured me it wasn’t like that and explained a little more about the golden bridge which isn’t nearly as nefarious a thing as some crude American comedies have made it out to be.

The book is written in a kind of “steam of consciousness” approach, which means first person POV. If you follow my reviews, you know it’s not my favorite, but the voicing is done with such candor and wit that it stays enjoyable and there are many amusing little things. (In this parallel dimension setup teenagers still read Seventeen and had Myspace). There is the occasional passive narration as the inner voice monologues. A part of the book I enjoyed was the language which might’ve only been possible in the author’s particular POV—some of the word selections were simply perfect and articulate but without danger of being written in the purple-prose that too many authors think impresses others while getting in the way of the actual story (I had to quit reading one recently because of just that—this story was succinct and colorful—here’s a great example, “I grabbed Russell Crowe and all I could breathe was a fusty body odour.” The language can be as intricate as it is enjoyable.)

Over all it had a kind of YA feel and continually reminded me of one of my favorite Dr. Who episodes (for a variety of reasons including the setting, language, time-travel, monsters, and plot [see the Father’s Day episode]) from the first season of the new Whoverse. This story has the same sort of character-driven introspection as that episode—if that’s the sort of story you are into (a potpourri mix of adventure, action, and sci-fi) then I highly recommend it.

The author gave me a free copy of the book in exchange for a review. You can check it out here.

Staying Engaged

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I wrote a while back in an article about building a platform that we need to stay engaged with our readership. I also once mentioned (at least once) that people buy books from people—it’s where indie authors can really excel and fine their footing—and it’s something that Amazon and the big chains can never do. A really good article came out over at the Marketing Christian Books Blog (one of the blogs I strongly suggest read my audience follow).

Guest writer Dan Poynter asks point blank “What am I willing to commit in time and energy each day or week to keep my book alive?”

I think that it’s important that authors don’t like to themselves and realize that excitement and enthusiasm will wane during different periods—but that they should set some realistic goals (and if you’re just starting and building a grandiose plan, your actual plan should probably be less than you think it is right now…just to keep it realistic and not burn out when it gets harder to find the committed time. Poynter also points out (as has my own contact at eLectio Publishing—where I have a book forthcoming in September) that authors tend to give a great effort to promote their book when it’s been recently released but that effort slowly dwindles away until nothing remains.

He recommends something similar to what I did in my article about platform building—a list of different possible actions to accomplish daily or weekly. Here is his list:

Publish a new blog post or podcast at least once a week.
Share your blog post on Reddit or StumbleUpon.
Send a newsletter to your email list sharing your new blog post or podcast and reminding them of your book.
Comment at least once a day on your social media accounts.
Send a request to a book reviewer or blogger asking them to review your book.
Join the discussion on online groups (Facebook, LinkedIn, GoodReads) that speak to your target audience or topic. Respond to a thread or start a new thread regularly.
Write insightful comments on a blog that targets your audience or speak on your topic a couple times each week.
Write articles and guest blog posts.
Send a request to be a guest on a podcast that speaks to your topic or audience.
Send thank you notes to people who share your social media posts, give you a shout out, air your blog post, interview you, or review your books.

I would offer a few caveats, however. There is such a thing as going to far.

#3—if you send an email every day your audience will stop reading. If you send one every week and the focus is on selling your book instead recapping a blog or special thing you are doing beyond the book, people will quit reading because it’s too salesly.

#6—don’t be too overt in steering to your book—OR too dominant as an expert…be sure to it remains conversational; it’s not a debate

Check out the full article at https://marketingchristianbooks.wordpress.com/2017/04/27/are-you-willing-to-commit

State of Writing

[image error]Me and my selfie stick went to Wizard World Minneapolis over the weekend and I sold a bunch of books! (moved about fifty, plus gave away a bunch of books, too–about ten of mine, and a stack of those people have sent me for reviews). I also got a chapter of Darque Gates of Koth (WotT2) written–but my goal last week was two… I’ll try for two again this week. Two chapters plus a 3day convention was a little ambitious.

I’m also still pushing my new Kickstarter campaign and trying to raise money for the comic book I’m producing. I got a page yesterday during the con. It’s gonna be amazing! Would you go check it out and support it with a few bucks?

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2070483758/wolves-of-the-tesseract-taking-of-the-prime-fantas

the campaign is updated twice a week with new character profiles with sample art and with new page reveals!

My Interview/Podcast alongside Lou Ferrigno

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I was on the Minnesota Skinny podcast as a lead-up to my Wizard World Comicon appearance this weekend (starting today) at the Minneapolis convention center. The original Hulk will be at the con, too, and Frank Haataja (the interviewer) got to interview him as well (plus a neat magician who does stuff for kids in hospitals).

Check it out:

http://minnesotaskinny.com/2017/05/03/episode-33-comic-con-minneapolis/

we also talk a little bit about my Kickstarter campaign! Go check it out over here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2070483758/wolves-of-the-tesseract-taking-of-the-prime-fantas

I appreciate all the  backers and shares!

Help Launch my Comic Book #Kickstarter and support #literacy and #freecomicbooks

[image error]We’ll do a full cover-art reveal once this project’s funding reaches 50%!

When I was in 7th grade one of my teachers commented, “Reading is so important that, if all he would read is comic books, I’d buy my son a subscription to every title he wanted. It’s the foundation to everything.”  A few years prior I’d gotten into comics when my grandmother gave me a box of classic golden-age titles she pulled out of storage. It certainly opened my mind to new worlds.

My crowd-funder is meant to do the same thing–inspire other readers by giving away a free comic book. The comic book, being developed by myself and my art team, is an original “one-shot” comic and a prequel to my Wolf of the Tesseract series. I’ve got agreements with 6+ local comicons who want to distribute a total of 5,000-10,000 copies of this for free to people–especially to young readers.

I’m launching this fundraiser to 1. encourage child/teen literacy by getting something in front of a specific, targeted audience and 2. promote my YA fiction series. The crossover from comics to the novel will be easy because the comic sets the stage and action that occurs in the novel and encouraging teens to read larger, print books is my ultimate goal!

The Kickstarter campaign is not meant as a money-making vehicle. The funds raised are only a portion of the costs necessary to develop, print, ship, and distribute 5,000 copies of the comic book; $2,500 is not a significant sum, but I’m only trying to cover enough of the actual cost to put books in kids’ hands; once we exceed that amount, additional funds will go towards purchasing more printed copies and paying for a stretch goal. I’ve already committed to paying the art team from my own pocket and cover artist Rebecca Alexander donated her art as a favor!

Please join this ambitious project and be a part of something amazing (and get your name listed in the thank-you/credits page!) Check it out by clicking here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2070483758/630914271?token=05122c5e

Authors, don’t pay sales tax twice!

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Not every part of being an author means I get to live in a fantasy land full of color and adventure. Many parts are boring and gray. If ever there’s an enemy to creativity it’s a tax form. To have success as an author (or, if you have any success as an author) you’re going to need to be familiar with taxes.

My journey begins on the phone with a tree nursery. I jointly own a very small Christmas tree farm and we plant less than 2 acres of seedlings every year and we’ve been doing that for a few years now when the nursery asks why we haven’t filed a form so we can get the seedlings tax exempt—which is something you can do when you produce a product for resale. It’s why farmers get tax exempt gas for field equipment, parts, etc. My grandparents on both sides farmed—it’s a wonder I didn’t think of that before.

Fast forward a month and I’m purchasing about $400 worth of books (wholesale cost) for an event when I have the thought, “shouldn’t this be tax exempt the same as buying seedlings?” Createspace did not have a ready answer for me and so I had to purchase those books and pay sales tax. The event coordinators required me to have all my tax document ducks in a row and so I began ferreting out info—especially when they announced a state tax collector will be on hand to demand tax payment at the end of the three day convention. I felt like I was in Biblical Rome…

Createspace did tell me that they have a process, but it’s up to me to know the details since it varies from state to state. Here’s their response:

Greetings from CreateSpace.

We do not collect sales taxes in all states for retail orders. For states where we do collect sales taxes, your purchase is subject to sales tax unless it is specifically exempt.

If you are a reseller making tax exempt wholesale orders, please submit the appropriate Uniform Sales and Use Tax Certificate and Reseller Certificate to the email, address or fax number below:

Email: info@createspace.com, Attn: CreateSpace Direct Reseller

Fax: (206) 922-5928, Attn: CreateSpace Direct Reseller

Shipping Address:

CreateSpace

Attn: Customer Service

4900 LaCross Road

North Charleston, SC 29406

Please allow one week for form processing. For additional information, please refer to the form instructions or your state’s Department of Revenue.

If you’re like me, your eyes gloss over when you read things like the above. Luckily, I’d already been forced to get those above mentioned forms on threat of crucifixion by my state tax guy. The form I needed in Minnesota is ST3 which is the same one as I needed for my Christmas tree seedlings. It was actually easy to fill out once I had the other info like my sales/use number, etc. It’s about a page and flows kind of like a W9 or W2.

A nice lady named Dianne at the MN tax office confirmed with me that (at least in my state) if you produce something for resale you don’t have to pay sales tax on it twice and she actually told me which boxes to check on the ST3 after I explained how I bought books and resold them at conventions.

The fact of the matter is: you don’t need to let the IRS double dip on taxes and charge you twice. The difference between being a writer and being an author is that authors plan to be read by the public—as much as it’s a passion and art, it’s also a business venture. Be sure to run it as such and make sure that your paying the same fee over and over again which will eat into your profit margin (which, like most Indies, will probably just go to paying travel costs and booth/entry fees anyway). Being an author shouldn’t cost you more than you make.

Following are a couple of great articles to help guide you on researching your tax liability as an author:

https://www.thebalance.com/sales-tax-facts-for-book-authors-2799901

https://www.thebalance.com/taxes-and-the-book-author-2799907

https://janefriedman.com/author-taxes/

Review: Edge of the Future

[image error]There is much to love in Andria Stone’s Edge of the Future. I was excited when she asked for me a review since books somewhere on the “hard sci-fi” spectrum have been pretty light in my request/query pile lately and it’s one of my favorite genres and there is much that she really does well.

First off, the cover is great—too many indie authors skimp here and either fail horribly and opt for a CC0 piece of free art with just a distant planet or something similar… or else they fail to capture the scope of their sci-fi story which, as a genre, has many niches. Edge of the Future jumps around our solar system with space travel, mechanical bio suits, nanobots, gun toting cyborgs, etc.  and so the cover really does it justice, letting us know that Earth (or Terra, in her future universe) is not the only setting for this story.

The characters are great and there’s a great chemistry between Mark and Axel—I even laughed out loud at the conversation these two guys had after waking in the hospital following an “accident” where one is shot in a… sensitive area. Stone really captures the essence of how guys relate to each other.

I also appreciated how things like racial diversity weren’t lost to humanity even though the world is pretty cohesive (along with populations on the moon/Luna and Mars,) and the diversity didn’t feel forced or cliché. The book had a feel very similar to the human interactions of Mark Cooper’s Merkiaari Wars series, which I enjoyed very much.

It’s a little less heavy than The Expanse, but takes place in a world with a similar feel, sans the injection of dour noir mystery and instead focusing on the adventure and plot (like the Star Trek movies have done). If you liked The Expanse, you will like this book.

I did get a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. Check out Edge of the Future by clicking here!

State of Writing

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Lots happened over the weekend. I did my writing and blogging and then I used a vacation day I’d banked a while back to get out and film a set of television interviews which will run in the Twin Cities . I also sat with a blogger and recorded a podcast that day and finalized a book signing for Barnes & Nobles in St. Cloud. The big thing for me, however, is the huge comicon coming up this weekend. Come on out and chill with me at Wizard World Minneapolis (if you still need tickets, get them online and use coupon code AUTHOR to get 20% off).

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My other big iron in the fire is the comic book I’m producing as a prequel to Wolf of the Tesseract. It will be done by the end of June and I’m planning to give away between 5,000 and 10,000 copies at different comicons I will attend in the upper Midwest (MN and the surrounding states). I’ve got agreements in place for distribution (“first 1,000 convention attendees” will get a free comic at the door kinda thing). Now, I’ve just got to crowd fund the rest of the costs. It’s actually pretty low for a comicbook kickstarter—I’ve just got to get the word out there as broad as possible later this week when I launch. (If you’re an author and want an advert for your book, we’re talking thousands of readers with targeted marketing for pretty cheap! Contact me for info!

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I did realize that if my current novel will be done on time I’m going to need to speed up my writing from one chapter per week to two for the rest of the month. That should be possible. I usually accelerate on the homestretch anyway. I’ll try for two chapters this week but commit to one and see how it goes (especially once I launch the comic promo.)

How much should authors charge for speaking engagements?

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This is one of those questions that always blindsides me. I’ll be sitting somewhere trying to sell books when someone in charge of a library or similar place asks me if I’d be interested in speaking some time. I rarely expect it, but the question comes, “how much do you charge to come and speak.” It may not happen to you early on as a writer, but you should have an idea in mind for a few reasons.

If you charge nothing (as you might intend) people will assume you are worthless. I can attest to this personally from many experiences across the arts. We used to run youth concerts all the time and attendance always suffered when the show was “free” because the inherent, subconscious value placed on the event was nothing. If there’s no investment, there’s no commitment and there’s no value.
Your time is worth something. Even if you want to donate it or do a service for someone else or an organization there are travel fees (even just fuel) which can sometimes be significant. You can do an event for free, but you should invoice the event with a figure to retain your “value.” If you would normally charge $X but do it an event for free, ask for a gift in kind letter if they are a nonprofit like most libraries. You can write that amount off on your taxes.

How much should you charge? It will vary widely depending on your area, but a good ballpark is about $200, from what I’ve heard from other authors. I ask for $200 from libraries and ask library workers to also identify one student reader who they think one of my books is perfect for but may not be able to afford purchasing—that student will receive a free, autographed copy. If significant travel is involved I would ask for additional monies to cover expenses.

There are a few articles below that might help you to further think through things like speaking engagement fees, etc. In addition to being a writer I am a musician and regularly speak/preach at churches. As is often the case in religious work people tend to say, “oh, just pay me whatever you can afford/think it’s worth.” That’s a pretty loaded position to put someone in. I recently booked music and speaking gig and gave the church director a price. She was very relieved; over the past three years they’d used a different music team who incurred significant travel each year and she never knew if what they paid even covered expenses and so they always assumed they were imposing. Setting a fee and clearly stating what you will provide puts everyone at ease.

Have an idea what you want to charge. You don’t need to be rigid, however. I tell libraries and organizations that I don’t want cost to be an issue if it means the difference between doing an event or not and that we can negotiate something if necessary.

Helpful links:

http://ask.metafilter.com/220256/How-much-should-I-charge-to-speak-at-an-event

http://author2author.blogspot.com/2012/06/what-should-i-charge-for-author-visit.html

https://writenaked.net/2014/02/24/qa-how-much-should-a-writer-charge-for-speaking-engagement/

Review: Prison Made of Mirrors

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Okay. You’re going to have to stick with this review of Prison Made of Mirrors, which I really do think is a little hidden diamond on the bookshelf—but it might not sound like it at first.

I was kind of eager to read it because I really did like the cover (even though it’s not much more than an obvious stock photo with some runes overlaid with light transparency—but it works because of the sense of story it conjures.) I was a little surprised when it arrived in such a small package; it’s actually a novella . That’s neither here nor there, just something I hadn’t really recognized… that means it’s a faster read: like a long lunch break if you read fast.

What I didn’t like:

The story doesn’t really start until chapter three. I was a little discouraged immediately when the opening paragraph was an obvious info dump to establishing the setting. There were also some grammar errors that should’ve been caught (like an unfinished sentence which started and then a new one with capitalized word began—like the author might’ve accidentally deleted a section during reedit but didn’t have a proofreader to catch the error,) and some inconsistencies with terms that didn’t really get explained. In fact, I almost gave up since Ch2 was still talking about irrelevant people and not the main character. But I’m glad I didn’t give up and the beginning makes more sense when read below (and it gets easier when the 1st two chapters worth of “narrator voice” goes away and the story really begins).

What I liked:

The first moment I really started to like the book was when Queen Aithne’s personality began to come out (not her traits—it’s easy to write about someone, less easy to make them alive)—she suddenly began to feel like Game of Throne’s Cerci, or Vikings’ Aslog. I guess I’d figured the book would be mostly passive and, knowing the Viking content, thought maybe the author was going for a story as if told by a skald at a bonfire. …but Aithne isn’t likeable and so it didn’t hook me yet. Then there was a werewolf. I’m in. Vikings + werewolves basically guarantees I’m going to read it through.

While the main character isn’t a werewolf, I was starting to enjoy the story more and really liked the Dvergar whom Brenna (the MC) met at the mid-point. I don’t know why I didn’t realize it until then, but I recognized that this is a retelling of Snow White set in a Scandinavian/Viking backdrop. The waxing passivity of the first two chapters made sense when I realized the author was writing as if this were a dark Disney movie set in a parallel kingdom to Ragnar Lothbrook—the first two chapters are that little snippet of film thrown out to lay a framework right before the main Title Screen flashes across the screen. I think it would’ve worked better as a prologue, in that sense, but it’s not my book. Maybe I figured it out later than most people… I dunno, but it made the issues I had initially with the book uncomfortable rather than unforgiveable.

Another thing I liked was the Loring, once the stage was set, maintained consistency in the world (outside of those few inconsistencies early on) and things like names and terms or an obviously Nordic origin (even alternate/archaic spellings such as dvergar versus duregar) really gave the story a well-crafted atmosphere; she did not break the setting by trying to force it either (like annunciating accents into the speech—I hate that so much, and she avoided that trap).

It’s worth picking up, especially if you liked the Vikings series or Snow White and the Huntsman movie(s). You can get the book by clicking here!